


off book

by kangtv (galacticnik)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Ha Sungwoon (minor), Hwang Minhyun (mentioned), Kim Jaehwan (minor), M/M, Yoon Jisung (mentioned), featuring awkward monologues and bad jokes, i don't know what else to tag it as, just a bunch of 'i'm sorry??'s in a row
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 14:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11443110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticnik/pseuds/kangtv
Summary: Daniel and Seongwoo do a kiss scene for a friend's movie.It's awkward, but not as awkward as Daniel's newfound crush on his best friend.





	off book

**Author's Note:**

> this is the fastest i've written something in a while (what have i become). please excuse any spelling/grammer/formatting flubs! this is self -edited and i did my best C':

The most romantic thing Seongwoo has probably ever said to him is, “Don’t burp in my mouth.”

Three beers down and Daniel cannot safely promise him that. Shit happens. He’s occasionally gassy; it’s a human thing. Besides, his alcohol tolerance is mid-level and all three beers does is make him giggly. _Stupidly_ giggly, like, the mop behind Seongwoo makes it look like he’s wearing a stringy off-white wig and for some reason he keeps thinking of Gandalf even though Seongwoo is too handsome to be an old dude. He snorts at the thought, then covers his face and snorts again when Seongwoo deadpans, “Man, you got me so hot and bothered right now.”

Christ, they _suck_ at creating an atmosphere. No wonder Jaehwan’s been yelling at them all night. But Jaehwan dug his own grave the minute he asked Daniel and Seongwoo of all people to play the main characters in his short student film. As the best looking—and apparently most gullible—of his friends, they are natural leading man material. And Seongwoo is a drama minor, so that probably contributes to his role in the production. Hell if Daniel knows why he’s here.

Ten out of ten, it’s the gullibility.

Technically, they’re on a film set, but Daniel calls it a heavy handed metaphor. Cramped, musty, and smelling faintly of beeswax, the place is so tiny Daniel’s surprised three people can fit inside. Four, if you count the janitor who popped by earlier to grab the plunger and awkwardly hung around for a couple of minutes past what one would consider normal. Jaehwan was able to shoo him off by promising to add the guy to the movie. Daniel doesn’t think the two have the same idea of what kind of movie it is.

This is the scene where Seongwoo’s character tells Daniel that he’s in love with him… or something like that. Daniel’s forgotten the plot and all of his lines and he honestly thinks Seongwoo might have been improvising since day one. Really, all Daniel is a hundred percent sure about is that Jaehwan wants to film a kiss scene between the two leads for plot development and other things.

A kiss scene.

**[ They kiss ].**

Smoochies.

_Christ._

He wants to be relieved; this is a lot less awkward than he originally imagined. Daniel has Seongwoo to thank for keeping the mood light and _un_ romantic, no hypothetical fuzzy pink lights or fluttering cherry blossoms or soft 90s mood music (alternatively, a whole orchestra) in the background. Now that would’ve made things weird.

Weird _er_.

Maybe Daniel should have gone easier on the alcohol. Or popped in a breath mint or two before agreeing to do this. Seongwoo’s face looms before him, uncomfortably close, and Daniel’s gaze instinctively falls to his mouth—which is _bullshit_ since he’s pretty sure he doesn’t spend a lot of time looking in that general direction. Though Seongwoo does have a nice mouth. Definitely on Daniel’s list of top ten most kissable mouths on campus, but he would rather eat his entire fist than admit it to him. Seongwoo’s ego is… _Seongwoo’s ego_. Enough said.

Hmmm. He squints. Top three.

Yeah, he doesn’t feel so giggly now.

“I need another beer,” Daniel blurts out, crushing empty can number three in his fist. From the back, Jaehwan hollers something about how ‘if he slurs on camera he’s going get a swift kick to the nads.’ Daniel ignores him and leans back, a broom digging into a part of his body it should not be digging into. “Sorry, I’m—sorry, I don’t know if I can do this right now.” He doesn’t want to chicken out and leave Jaehwan high and dry, but this is a lot to ask of a friend.

They’re not even being paid for it. Granted, Jaehwan did buy them a twelve pack of beer. Daniel appreciates it—he can’t do this completely sober—but seriously, _beer_? Is it worth it?

And, you know, he would feel a lot better if Seongwoo were the least bit bothered by the thought of locking lips with Daniel—which he doesn’t seem to be—because Daniel would feel like his reaction to the script is less unnatural and more justified that way. Instead of horror or an awkward little smile, Seongwoo laughs, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and leans forward. His hands are resting on Daniel’s shoulders and his mouth is a little too close a little too soon and _they’re not supposed to bang faces together yet slow down_. “What, you need to be drunk to kiss your best friend?”

Rhetorical question. Daniel swallows and answers anyway. “You don’t?” It comes out more as a cry. He should be crying inside right now.

“‘Course not. What am I, some kind of amateur?” Seongwoo smirks. Daniel refrains from reminding him that he is a drama minor and his last ‘acting’ role was playing Guard #3 in a stage production Daniel slept through. “I understand if this is your first kiss, Daniel, but I promise I’ll make it a good one.”

“Dude.” It’s not his first kiss. “My lips are chapped.”

Seongwoo raises an eyebrow. “Do I look like I care?” He pushes forward and Daniel stumbles until his back is pressed against the cool wall and the broom has disappeared somewhere entirely. Seongwoo’s hands move from Daniel’s shoulders to press flat against the wall, trapping his face between them. The only way to get out of here is to headbutt Seongwoo and Daniel’s not going to do that. He’ll just endure the heat of their bodies pressing together and try to focus on other things. Shaved ice. Cats. Boba.

“C’mon, Daniel. Suck it up.” Seongwoo says, pulling back to brush a thumb over Daniel’s bottom lip. So much for Seongwoo making it less awkward. Fucker is enjoying this. Actors (or wannabe ones) are really on a different level. “Pucker up. Suck and puck.”

“Can you n—”

Jaehwan reappears from whatever corner he was doing Official Director Stuff in (Jisung’s right, it does sound like a codename for jacking off). “Got the camera working again—” He breaks off when he sees them, the handheld camera limp in his hands. “What are you doing?”

A long silence stretches between the three of them before Seongwoo springs away from Daniel like he’s been burned and knocks his head against a low shelf. The satisfying _thunk_ helps Daniel feel vindicated. Ha, asshole; get what you give. “Trying to get into character, sorry,” Seongwoo says quickly. “Also fucking with Daniel.” _Rude._ “I’m ready to go.”

Daniel is not, but at this point he doesn’t think it matters. “Let’s do it,” he says, cracking his knuckles.

Jaehwan rolls his eyes. “Kiss him, don’t punch him.”

Swallowing his instinctive response, Daniel and Seongwoo focus on Jaehwan’s instructions instead. He’s kind of an anal director but it’s his project, so he probably knows what’s best. Daniel’s just glad he didn’t go for that fourth beer and can actually navigate around and not trip over a mop or something. He does trip anyway and lands half in Seongwoo’s arms who takes the opportunity to make a ‘falling for me’ joke. Embarrassing, but there you go.

Thankfully, Daniel’s lines are minimal, and he barely has to say anything before Seongwoo says, “I love you.” Daniel’s heart seizes up for a second before he reminds himself they’re acting.

And then Seongwoo is pressing his mouth against his with bruising force and Daniel inadvertently lets out a small gasp. Seongwoo’s fingers wind into his hair, tugging him closer, and Daniel’s palms are pressed flat against Seongwoo’s chest, poised to push him away but—Seongwoo smells like pizza and sweat and Pepero which should make him hurl but just makes him clutch at Seongwoo’s shirt instead, embarrassed by the way a shiver runs down his spine. Seongwoo forces his head back trails kisses down Daniel’s jaw, neck, teeth grazing against sensitive skin and he _groans_. Seongwoo moves back and catches Daniel’s bottom lip between his, sucking lightly. The entire length of Seongwoo’s body is pressed against his and—

Chest heaving, Seongwoo pulls away slowly. For a second, he and Daniel just stare at each other, breathing heavily, Daniel’s tongue darting out to whet his lips. Seongwoo’s expression softens. He drops his arms and steps back. Daniel reluctantly pulls away from him, then wonders _why_ he's so reluctant. Sliding to the floor, he buries his head in his arms. “Don’t look at me,” Daniel grumbles. His neck, his face, his ears are all burning bright red and it was _just a stage kiss._

Seongwoo laughs, but he’s a little pink himself. It could just be the lighting, but Daniel catches him reaching up to touch his lips before yanking it back as if stung. Even so, he sounds cocky and a little breathless as he says, “C’mon, give daddy another kiss.”

“Did you just fucking—no, I never want to—”

Before he can finish, Jaehwan swears loudly and bangs his camera against his leg. “Sorry, I think I forgot to hit record.” He looks at Seongwoo and Daniel and grimaces. “Can we do that again?”

For the third time in the night, Daniel thinks, _Christ._

 

—

 

They end up having to redo the scene six times in total, which means _six times_ Daniel and Seongwoo kiss with Jaehwan filming the whole thing and periodically snapping critiques at them. He ignores his friend after a while and just focuses on the feeling of Seongwoo’s mouth moving against his.

Damn, Seongwoo is a good kisser.

Daniel’s lips are red and swollen by the time Jaehwan finally calls cut. Rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand, he grabs the remaining cans and flees to his room. Slightly counter-productive since he and Seongwoo live together, but Seongwoo simply hops into the shower once they get back, giving Daniel about half an hour of peace. Half an hour to drink until he can’t feel his face so he can expertly avoid any conversation about The Closet when Seongwoo gets out.

Bad luck. Daniel is still somewhat aware when Seongwoo emerges from the bathroom, a peach towel wrapped loosely around his waist and another around his neck. “Thanks for saving me one,” he says drily, eyeing the empty cans scattered around his roommate.

Daniel gives him a half-hearted thumbs up from his bed, eyes fixed to the ceiling. “You hate beer.”

“False: I like beer.” He hears Seongwoo rummage through his drawers. “Just not that kind.”

“Then why would you—” Daniel makes the mistake of raising his head to look and immediately slams it back down again. Seongwoo’s glowing. Does Seongwoo know he’s glowing? Maybe glistening is a better word. Glowing and glistening and Daniel would love to be drunk right now. He’d love to fool himself into thinking the nausea in his stomach is alcohol related and not a symptom of anything else. “Put on some clothes, man.”

“Keep it in your pants, man,” Seongwoo shoots back, mimicking Daniel’s tone. “It’s hot and I’m tempted to sleep in the nude, so getting me to put on boxers is enough.”

 _No thanks_ , Daniel thinks, and also _get a hold on yourself, you’re embarrassing._ He’s seen Seongwoo’s dick before and didn’t find it impressive so there’s really no reason for his face to heat up. “Turn the lights off when you’re done,” he says, rolling over and burying his face in the pillow. It smells like stale beer—wait, that’s his breath. Was Seongwoo kissing him with this breath? Give the man a medal.

Seongwoo fusses in silence, the scraping of pens against his desk the only sound in the room until Daniel hears the flick of a switch. Plunged in darkness, he fumbles around for a dented can and clenches it in his fist. “Hey,” he hears Seongwoo say from across the room. “We’re okay, right?” Seongwoo sounds—not _nervous_ , but uncharacteristically serious.

For a moment, Daniel almost says something, then shakes his head. “Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know. You were…” Seongwoo trails off. Daniel cranes his neck but can’t see anything. Can imagine Seongwoo looking at him owlishly, mouth pressed in a flat line, though. “Uncomfortable. I know it was Jaehwan’s thing but if—”

“What?” This is exactly the conversation he wanted to avoid. Maybe not _exactly_ , but Daniel would like to not talk about these things now, or ever. Definitely not with Seongwoo. “No, it’s cool. I’m just not used to it.” It isn’t a lie as far as he’s concerned. It was awkward because Daniel made it awkward. He’ll sleep it off and be back to normal in the morning.

Seongwoo laughs; the kind of sound that follows relief. “Being an actor or being kissed?”

 _That was not his first kiss._ Daniel groans and kicks his covers up. “Stop.”

Seongwoo laughs again; it fills up the room this time, comforting and familiar. In spite of his best efforts, Daniel finds himself chuckling along. Damn Seongwoo for being infectious. Damn Seongwoo for a lot of things, actually. “I’m going to miss Daehyun and Hyunjae though,” Seongwoo says eventually, sighing. “They were fun.”

“... Who?” The hell?

Something soft collides with the back of his head. Daniel bites back a yelp and gropes around for it—just a balled up sock, thank god. He feared underwear for a second there; wouldn’t be the first time Seongwoo flung something nasty at him. “Our characters in Jaehwan’s movie. Were you alive during filming?”

It takes Daniel several moments to figure out what he’s talking about. “Oh. _Oh_.” The answer to Seongwoo’s question is yes, but everything is sort of fuzzy. “I didn’t know they had names.” Which one was he supposed to be?

Seongwoo is quiet for so long that Daniel thinks he fell asleep. Then, abruptly, “Don’t talk to me or my sons ever again,” he huffs.

Daniel laughs hard enough to give himself a stomach cramp.

 

—

 

#1 on the list of things Daniel and Seongwoo do not talk about: that.

In the morning, Daniel can pretend nothing happened. Or he can pretend that something happened and he isn’t still bothered by it, doesn’t still look at Seongwoo and think about the scent of his skin or the way his hands wound into Daniel’s hair and pulled him closer. _Not that._

He hears from Minhyun later that Jaehwan locked himself in his room and will probably be spending the next week editing his footage into something that can pass for a fake-deep artsy film. In a way, that’s good. Keeps them from having to think about it. Daniel can go back to normal after hitting the rewind button on their friendship. And Seongwoo—

Seongwoo is unperturbed by the turn of events. _Completely_ lacking in perturbedness. Daniel hates himself for wondering why Seongwoo isn’t perturbed. Like it matters. Like he should be upset over it. But hell, Seongwoo is an _actor._ He’s probably used to slipping into character and knows how to separate fiction from reality. And kissing. _Really_ used to kissing.

Daniel’s having some troubles with that. The separation thing, not the kissing thing.

Look, the problem here is not that he kissed a guy, or even that he kissed Seongwoo, it’s that he kissed a guy who happened to be Seongwoo and liked it. Maybe messed up take four on purpose so they’d get to take five and he could kiss him again. In his defense, Seongwoo screwed up take three first by cracking up when Daniel tried to adlib a sexy line and Daniel thinks he sort of likes the taste of laughter on Seongwoo’s lips.

And you know, that’s pretty gay of him.

Again, not something he has a problem with. It’s 2017. Some guys like girls, some guys like guys, some guys like both, and some guys like everyone. Daniel isn’t sure where he falls on that spectrum, but he’s open to figuring it out. Never given much thought to ‘with who,’ but Seongwoo’s face just swam in front of his eyes so maybe that’s a sign. If only Daniel could say something to him. “Can we do that again?” or “Date me maybe?” to the tune of Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song.

It’s not just the kissing or the wanting to do more of it either. To use a really bad Disney metaphor, Daniel is Sleeping Beauty and Seongwoo is the prince dude. Or Daniel is Snow White and Seongwoo is the prince dude—with the rest of their friends as the seven dwarves (Horny, Drunky, Bitchy, Sexy, Stoney, Brokey, and Weepy). Snow White dies though… and he’s too claustrophobic for a glass coffin. The point is, Daniel was asleep and/or dead and now he’s not, awoken by Seongwoo’s kiss or something appropriately cheesy like that.

Okay, yeah. No more Disney for him.

What he’s trying to say is that he can’t go back to the time where he was blissfully unaware of Seongwoo’s charms. He’s aware of the possibility of them together and doesn’t think he can hit rewind though he wants to. Before, Seongwoo was just a friend. Now, Seongwoo is a guy who’d actually make a damn good boyfriend, close to Daniel’s ideal. He’s not a relationship guy, but if he had to be in one, it would be something comfortable and relaxing and fun—and occasionally hot. Hypothetically, that could be him and Seongwoo.

But Seongwoo doesn’t notice Daniel’s sudden awkwardness—or doesn’t care. Even the moments when Daniels leans in little too into a one armed hug, or stares at Seongwoo a little too long when he comes out of the shower, or laughs too hard at his stupid jokes though he’s the only person doing so. It’s strange; now that they’ve kissed, it’s like Daniel is _hyper-aware_ of Seongwoo all the time but Seongwoo isn’t any different towards him. Daniel swears Seongwoo enjoyed himself at the time, but he’s an actor and probably just that good of one.

Fuck, maybe this is a bigger sign that Ong Seongwoo thinks of him as just a friend.

And it shouldn’t be as big of a disappointment as it is.

 

—

 

Daniel’s not sure what he dislikes more: Minhyun’s reassurance that everyone crushes on their best friend at some point or Jisung’s reassurance that everyone crushes on _Seongwoo_ at some point. The former makes him feel stupid for taking things so seriously. The latter makes him jealous first, then makes him feel stupid because he doesn’t own Seongwoo.

There’s also the small matter of all his friends looking _way_ too excited when Daniel explains his sudden crisis to them, but that’s something to think about later. Actually, he doesn’t really have to think about it at all. His friends are assholes, plain and simple.

Calling this feeling a crush is weird in and of itself. Daniel associates crushes with the awkward middle school version of romance: love letters stuffed into shoe lockers, energetic teasing by friends, shy stolen glances outside classrooms, light stalking to and from hagwon. This is more of an ‘oh no’ situation. A Yahoo Answers moment: _Help! My best friend rocked my world and I think I might be in love. What should I do?_ Except with more spelling errors and better advice than what his friends are giving him.

Sungwoon is the last person Daniel should be talking to, but he’s desperate and Sungwoon is the only person not swallowed up by cramming for finals. He’s still studying, but also studiously ignoring Daniel as he pours out his woes over a cup of coffee. That’s fine with Daniel. He doesn’t even want Sungwoon to listen, just sit there and act like he cares. But surprisingly, when he pauses for breath, Sungwoon puts his pen down and peers at Daniel over his glasses. “Hey Daniel?” he asks. “Would you be open to some feedback regarding your problem?”

He blinks. Sungwoon taking an interest in anyone but himself? Spooky. “Yeah, sure.”

“You’re a fucking idiot and I literally could not care less about your adolescent angst and this ‘does he, doesn’t he’ bullshit.”

Ah. As expected. “Thanks, Sungwoon.”

Sungwoon picks up his pen and resumes taking notes. “Anytime, buddy.”

As pointless as it was trying to talk to Sungwoon, the man is right about one thing: this is bullshit.

Daniel needs to get himself together.

 

—

 

When he sees Jaehwan next, Daniel seriously considers asking him if he’s doing a Walking Dead cosplay or something. The last time he saw someone looking like such complete and absolute shit, it was Halloween and someone convinced Daehwi to dress up as the poop emoji. “You okay there?” he asks, eyeing Jaehwan’s extra-extra large cup of coffee. Pretty sure he spiked it with something too.

Jaehwan ignores his question and fishes something out of his pocket. “Take it,” he says, slapping a USB into Daniel’s palm. It’s shaped like a cat’s paw and Daniel quietly pockets it without much protest. “The edited movie. Watch it. Love it. Cry over it.”

Right. “Uh, I’ll do _one_ of those… but wait, you don’t want to watch it together?”

Jaehwan gives him a withering look. “I don’t have time to waste on you.” Fair enough. Dude looks like he needs 48 hours of sleep. Without waiting for a response, he turns on his heel and fast tracks it out of the quad, leaving Daniel with a vague sense of unease.

“Thanks, I guess.”

He has no real desire to see himself act or see Jaehwan’s movie in general. Daniel still has no idea what the whole thing is about—two dudes being gay together?—thanks to being not entirely sober for most of the filming. Blame Jaehwan; he _did_ pay them in alcohol. But at the same time, he wants to see it too, just for the hell of it. He’s a supportive friend.

It has nothing to do with a pathetic desire to watch his and Seongwoo’s kiss scene again but since it’s going to happen, he won’t complain either.

Seongwoo is the only one who takes up the offer Daniel sends to the group chat. Everyone else is too busy studying for finals, and sure, he should be too, but he still has a couple of days and it’s a thirty minute movie, maximum.

Which is how he finds himself on Seongwoo’s bed, the man’s wet hair dripping onto Daniel’s shoulder, the laptop balanced between them. It’s too hot outside to be sticking together like this, Daniel’s bare leg pressed against Seongwoo’s, still hot from his shower. Any other day he’d complain or shove him away but honestly, it’s nice. The sense of closeness, not the sticky and sweaty skin, though that might be nice in a different context.

He wants to laugh at himself.

Seongwoo sweeps his hair out of his eyes and a couple of drops of water hand on Daniel’s cheek. He pays no attention to them and fiddles with the USB, but then Seongwoo’s fingers are brushing away the wetness on his cheeks and he freezes. Genuinely forgets to breathe for a minute until Seongwoo says, “Whoops, sorry. Wish I’d remembered to wash my towels.”

“I said you could borrow mine,” Daniel mumbles once he remembers how to inhale. He’s so distracted by Seongwoo’s mouth close to his ear that he accidentally clicks on the folder marked DO NOT OPEN and quickly clicks back out once he realizes it’s Jaehwan’s collection of carefully curated furry porn. Yeah, no thanks.

“Yours are dirtier than mine are,” Seongwoo says, narrowing his eyes at the screen. There’s a small chance they may not be talking about towels anymore. Daniel doesn’t take it.

“Fair enough.”

Once he opens the right folder and clicks on the video named FINAL CUT, he comes to the sudden and frightening conclusion that maybe watching himself eat Seongwoo’s face while sitting on Seongwoo’s bed with Seongwoo’s head practically resting on his shoulder might not be a great idea. Might be awkward—for him. With grim bitterness, he remembers that Seongwoo does not care.

_Unperturbed._

“We should get popcorn or something. I mean, it’s Jaehwan’s debut movie,” Seongwoo says suddenly. His breath tickles Daniel’s neck who does his damnedest not to squirm.

“You’re going to volunteer to get up and make it?” he asks.

Seongwoo sighs despondently. “Nevermind.”

Daniel chuckles and presses play, sitting back as the opening credits flash across the screen. “You think Jaehwan kept in the scene where you broke down crying about how much you loved cats?” Seongwoo snickers.

Wincing, Daniel turns the volume up. “I was really drunk at that time.” He does love cats but that was… well. _That._

“It was a theatrical masterpiece,” Seongwoo insists.

“Shut up.”

Seongwoo opens his mouth to say something else, but decides against it to pay attention to the movie. Jokes and everything aside, it’s actually pretty decent. Jaehwan must’ve worked fucking miracles with his editing software because Daniel doesn’t remember anything they filmed making sense. Even without the cat related breakdowns, it was a damn mess. He’s pretty sure Seongwoo improvised something about an alien invasion at some point too.

This is surprisingly not a mess. The plot finally makes sense to him (eerily so; the parallels are creepy): it’s about two best friends, Daehyun (Daniel) and Hyunjae (Seongwoo) who straddle a fine line between friends and something more. Until Hyunjae drunkenly confesses he has feelings for Daehyun who doesn’t know if he returns them. He spends some time conflicted about how to respond until he realizes he’s been in love with Hyunjae all along. Their kiss scene in the closet is the climax of the film, when Daehyun tells Hyunjae he cares about him and they… get hot. _Really hot_. Like, if this is what Daniel looks like when he kisses Seongwoo, then he shouldn’t be kissing anyone ever again.

Teeth sink into his bottom lip as Daniel sneaks a glance over at Seongwoo. The other man has been unnaturally quiet during the whole movie which is starting to freak him out a bit. Seongwoo is never quiet. His gut instincts were right; this is awkward. Daniel coughs into his elbow, breaking the silence first. “This is weird, right? I was probably a bad kisser.” A slow grin spreads over Seongwoo’s face and Daniel adds, “Fine, I don’t have a ton of practice.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Seongwoo’s elbow digs into his side. Smirking, he says, “You’re a good kisser.”

“Okay,” he responds. Then almost bangs his head against the laptop’s edge in his scramble to sit up. Did Seongwoo just…? But did he actually just…? Daniel’s buffering but the video of his life stopped somewhere between ‘what the fuck’ and ‘no way’ and can’t process further. “I don’t know what to do with this information.” Maybe this is just a compliment thing, trying to hype up a friend. Yeah.

Seongwoo shrugs. “You could kiss me again.” He sounds way, way too casual, but Daniel can see a light dusting of pink on Seongwoo’s cheeks, the tension in his muscles and the hopeful upturn of his eyes.

Daniel chokes. “You _want_ me to kiss you.” He’s tempted to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming. After all those Disney marathons, it’s a possibility.

“At this point I’d be offended if you kissed anyone else.” Seongwoo sits up and runs a hand through his damp hair, not meeting Daniel’s eyes. He keeps his tone light, nonchalant, but all Daniel can think of is, what the hell. He’s tempted to ask if this is a joke. Daniel hasn’t been subtle about things ever since they filmed together. Maybe Seongwoo’s fucking with him. But Seongwoo wouldn’t do that… he thinks.

Sending his laptop flying off the bed (silently praying he didn’t break it; his final philosophy paper is still on there), Daniel stares at Seongwoo, memorizing the lines of his face, the three small moles on his cheek winking at him in the harsh light. Fuck, he wants to say something. _Anything._ He wants Seongwoo to know that he—but words fail him. “Uh.”

Seongwoo meets his gaze with one of his own, the distance between them growing smaller by the second. “Not how I wanted to do this…” His mouth twists wryly. “But I _think_ I like you.” And oh, there’s a softness to Seongwoo’s eyes, the sort of expression Daniel hasn’t seen since the night they filmed together. And it’s doing some strange, _strange_ things to his heart and stomach.

“Oh.” Holy shit. _Holy shit._ This was never one of the anticipated outcomes. Daniel should say something quickly before the moment fades and he’s doomed to be alone forever or Seongwoo changes his mind like, _kidding! I find your emotional constipation super unappealing._ Now that would be a nightmare and _wait he still hasn’t responded._ Daniel drags a hand down his face and bursts out, “I think I like you too.”

Seongwoo’s frozen, a deer in headlights. If that deer were handsome as hell and also looking at Daniel like he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing either. Then a grin splits across his face, brightening his whole expression, and Daniel can’t believe it’s because of him. _For him._ “You know, this is anticlimactic.” Fingers brush against the underside of his jaw as Seongwoo cups Daniel’s face and pulls him closer. “I’m going to ask for Shakespearean style declaration of love next time.” And they’re still in bed, legs tangled together, feeling hot and sticky and Daniel keeps holding his breath waiting for Seongwoo to kiss him.

Shaking a bit, Daniel’s hands slip around Seongwoo’s waist. Maybe it _is_ anti climatic, but he’s had enough of teenage dramatics for now. If Seongwoo wants a soliloquy, he’ll give him one, complete with cascading flower petals in the back and anime sparkles—but later. “We could just kiss again now if that makes you feel better.”

Seongwoo smiles against his mouth. “Close enough.”

 

—

 

Final grades are posted a couple of weeks later, to Daniel’s dismay. He has a solid passing GPA but nothing to be proud about. Seongwoo makes studying difficult, though Daniel repeatedly tells him to come off it, _can’t he see he’s studying a whole semester’s worth of content here?_ And Seongwoo always responds with _five minutes._ It’s never just five minutes.

Still, he’s happy enough with both his grades and his relationship, though it took a while for him to call it that. Things haven’t changed enough for there to be a shift. He and Seongwoo kiss a lot more, sure, hold hand sometimes. Seongwoo wants to cuddle a lot too, and Daniel’s surprised at how clingy he can get. But he doesn’t dare complain—it’s kind of nice. Been a while since he felt like someone cared about him this much. Been a while since he’s about someone this much.

Their friends are happy for them, but Daniel feels like he owes the most to Jaehwan. Without his movie and dumb script, they wouldn’t have ever crossed the line. God knows where Jaehwan is, though. Daniel doesn’t even know if _Jaehwan_ knows about recent developments. Or is alive. When he finally sleepwalks into the common room of their dorm one afternoon, they all let out a collective sigh of relief until Jaehwan says, “Film grades are out.”

Minhyun is the only one of them willing to feign polite interest. “What’d you get?”

Daniel’s sort of interested too, but Seongwoo’s hand is also casually resting on his inner thigh and he’s finding it extremely distracting.

“A B-minus,” Jaehwan groans. “A B-MINUS. ME.”

Now Daniel does look up. The film was pretty good. “What happened?”

“Yeah, how come?” Seongwoo asks, hand travelling upwards. Daniel stiffens and mutters, _“Dude,”_ while Seongwoo just grins like the cat who ate the canary.

Jaehwans sinks into an armchair and drops his head into his hands before raising it with a murderous look—trained right on Daniel. “Frankly Daniel, your acting _sucks_ and you and Seongwoo have negative chemistry.” Huh, wow. Awkward. “I don’t know what I was thinking pairing you two together, but no one would actually believe all that repressed desire and gay spring awakening crap—”

Someone coughs. Daniel looks up at the ceiling. Seongwoo shakes with laughter next to him and squeezes Daniel’s thigh. Jisung slams his book shut and stage whispers, “Who’s going to tell him.”

Understanding and horror finally dawns on Jaehwan’s face. “Wow,” Minhyun says finally. “You have a _lot_ to catch up on.”

**Author's Note:**

> based off a tumblr prompt i saw a while back: _"we’re acting as the star roles for a friend’s short film they have to do for class and there was a kissing scene and i definitely felt the sparks fly but we both acted nonchalant about it because you know “it’s just acting” and now i don’t know what to do."_ not exactly true to it but i tried? i guess? 
> 
> to be honest, this is my first time posting something to ao3 and my first time writing a fic in forever. well, first time finishing a fic in forever. but i really love wanna one and ongniel so i figured i would give it a shot. i'm still a little ??? over this and characterization and _god writing is hard_ , but if you've read this far you are a trooper and my favourite person ever.
> 
> cheers ⭐ !


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